Sadiq Khan to shrink City Hall housebuilding by two-thirds despite £4 billion investment

Sadiq Khan was accused of “failing Londoners” today by proposing to shrink City Hall housebuilding by nearly two-thirds despite the Mayor receiving a third of England’s affordable housing budget. According to figures obtained by London-wide Assembly Member Andrew Boff, the Mayor’s 2021-26 housebuilding programme will only build 35,000 new affordable homes using the government’s £4 billion grant. This is only a third of the homes than the Mayor could build in comparison to his existing housebuilding programme. Under the current programme, the Greater London Authority plans to start building 116,000 affordable homes by 2023 using a previous £4.82 billion government grant. With a similar level of ambition, City Hall Tories calculate that the Mayor could use the latest government grant to build nearly 100,000 new homes.

Andrew Boff AM, GLA Conservative Housing Spokesman, commented: “Sadiq Khan’s decision to slow down City Hall housebuilding is scandalous. With a huge £4 billion government investment, the Mayor ought to build as many new homes as possible. Instead, he’s come up with a ridiculously unambitious plan.

“London has a fantastic deal from the Government – we’ve been given a third of England’s affordable homes budget. It’s the Mayor’s job to come up with a plan to turn that investment into new homes. He has no excuses for being unambitious.

“Under Sadiq Khan, City Hall housebuilding has become sluggish. After five years, he’s started less than half of the homes he has the money to build. It’s no wonder he’s chickening out and scaling back his housing plan by two-thirds.

“The Mayor is failing Londoners by squandering this golden opportunity to deliver the homes our city desperately needs. Londoners will not forgive him for passing up an opportunity to build nearly 100,000 new homes with this cash.”